Oropharyngeal Candidiasis: Fungal Invasion and Epithelial Cell Responses

While it is likely that both induced endocytosis and active penetration occur during OPC, it has been difficult to determine the role of active penetration in the pathogenesis of OPC because most invasins are hyphal specific. [...]C. albicans mutants that do not form hyphae also fail to express invasins and, consequently, are defective in both active penetration and induced endocytosis. Recently, it has been found that C. albicans infection also stimulates the activity of epithelial cell calpain, a cysteine protease that degrades E-cadherin. [...]calpain activity is dramatically enhanced in epithelial cells that are co-infected with C. albicans and Streptococcus oralis [10].